Viewing monthly charges

Table of contents

The Monthly Charges page is only available for HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity accounts. For these accounts, it replaces the Capacity Usage by Period report in the HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity Portal, which preceded the HPE Consumption Analytics Portal.

The Monthly Charges page lets you compare the actual usage and anticipated charges for your account to the requested, installed, and committed capacities. In other words, this is where you can view how much you’ve used of each item in your HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity contract for a given month, compared to how much is installed and how much you’re committed to pay for. It also shows you the costs associated with your usage.

The results are broken down first by Service Category (e.g., Compute, Storage). For some customers it’s also broken down by Location. Last, it's broken down by Tier. Each item at the lowest level - whether it represents a particular Tier at a particular Location, or simply a particular Tier - is considered a Meter. When you work with detailed usage data in other areas of the HPE Consumption Analytics Portal, you'll use the Meter Name to identify these items.

Each Meter's costs are subtotaled; costs are also subtotaled by Service Category. An overall total is displayed at the bottom of the page.

A Meter is defined in the HPE Consumption Analytics Portal as a contractual item for which commitments and rates are defined. Typically this corresponds to a Tier, or a Tier at a Location. Meters are uniquely identified by Meter Name and Meter ID. For more about Meters, see Using HPE Consumption Analytics with HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity.

For each Meter, the following metrics are displayed:

Field

Definition

Installed Capacity

The physical equipment or resources installed (typically the installed capacity is the requested capacity plus a buffer of 10%). Installed capacity can vary on a day-to-day basis, as hardware is brought in and out of service for maintenance purposes.

Requested Capacity

The capacity the customer has contractually requested.

Committed Capacity (%)

The percentage of requested capacity for which the customer has committed to pay.

Committed Capacity

The minimum level of a given resource for which the customer has contractually agreed to pay.

Minimum Contractual Capacity

A calculation based on Committed Capacity, Actual Usage from previous months, and shrink rules or other billing model rules. The next section, Understanding Minimum Contractual Capacity, explains these rules.

This field only displays if it is higher than the Committed Capacity; otherwise it is the same value, therefore is not displayed.

Actual Usage

The amount of resources consumed.

Capacity to be Invoiced

The amount of the Actual Usage, Committed Capacity, or Minimum Contractual Capacity, whichever is greatest. Once calculated, this is broken down by pricing bands, if used.

Understanding Minimum Contractual Capacity

Minimum Contractual Capacity is a calculated value based on one of the following shrink rules:

0% shrink – This means the Minimum Contractual Capacity can only grow as Actual Usage exceeds Committed Capacity, and not shrink back to the Committed Capacity.

10% shrink – This means the Minimum Contractual Capacity can grow as Actual Usage exceeds Committed Capacity and will shrink back to the Committed Capacity - but will never shrink more than 10% of the previous 3 months' average usage.

100% shrink – This means the Minimum Contractual Capacity can never grow, and will always be equal to the Committed Capacity.

Understanding estimated usage

You may see the message "(n estimated days)" under Actual Usage, with a footnote explaining that some or all usage data was not received for the number of days indicated during the month. To estimate the usage for those days, the usage data that was last successfully received is copied to the missing day(s).

If the missing actual usage data is later received and replaces the estimated usage, you may see the number of estimated days decrease.

Selecting an account and month to view

Account selection only applies to users who have access to more than one account.

To select an account and month to view

If you have access to more than one account, click the Account dropdown to select the one you want to view. Else skip to step 3.
The list of available accounts is displayed.

Click the name of the desired account.
The page updates to display the selected account data.

Click the Period dropdown.
The list of available months is displayed, by year.

Click the desired month.
The page updates to display the selected data.

Capacity planning

For some accounts, the former Capacity Usage by Period report in the HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity portal included a section with usage only (no rates or cost), for purposes of capacity planning. Since the HPE Consumption Analytics Portal provides much more powerful capacity planning features, this section is omitted from the Monthly Charges page.

For more about the capacity planning functionality of the HPE Consumption Analytics Portal, see Capacity planning.

Video overview

The following video provides an overview of the Monthly Charges page in your HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity Customer View: